That was one zWORKS member’s goal after realizing the huge demand for presentation design.

Michael “Mikey” Mioduski started his company GhostRanch Communications in 2015 which specializes in just that. They design custom sales presentations whether that be customizing specific slides or creating brand new templates.

“We see it as an underdog medium,” Mioduski said. “And we’ve been on a mission to make business-to-business slide decks bigger and better.”

Their mission is in their name. Predictive Wear focuses on making connected clothing that monitors your health.

Dane Albaugh, the CEO, and Pablo Argote, the CTO, are Purdue graduates and are working together with six other graduates to make their mission a reality.

The team of eight met while studying biomedical engineering at Purdue. They melded their various expertise after cofounding a student organization and eventually started the company, Predictive Wear.

“We created a solution both as a service and product that can center around the patient and have an ecosystem focused on predictive analytics, health informatics and wearable technology,” Argote said. “We believe the future is going this direction, especially in medicine.”

His grandfather was in a skiing accident and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Matt and his family quickly realized there was a communication gap between care providers and family members.

“We were constantly chasing down clinicians to get information,” Prasek said. “Information isn’t really easy to access at these care facilities. Really, family members just want to know how our loved one is doing.”

After his experience with his grandpa, he decided to work towards a solution.

He wakes up for work at 1 in the morning. Flies to another part of the country. Sleeps for a few hours. Then works on websites the rest of the day before he flies back home.

David McArdle is a pilot for FedEx Express and flies the night sort shift. Packages are loaded between 2 to 3 a.m., then he flies out by 4 a.m.

His company, Indy Web Designers, is something he started after receiving compliments on the website he created for another of his startup companies. When he saw the positive response, he decided to make it his day job.

“I like learning new things,” McArdle said. “I learn something new with every project.”

What makes Ryan Blakley so perfect for his job? He’s been there. And done that.

Blakley grew up helping his parents transform Blakley’s Flooring into a flourishing company on the northside of Indy. He was there when they didn’t have the keys to their brand new building. One of the garage doors was cracked and he crawled under to let them in. He was there for the good times and bad and knows what startups go through.

You have probably seen him around zWORKS on Wednesdays during PNC’s office hours. Or perhaps at different Happy Hours. Blakley is the Business Banking Center Manager and VP at Zionsville’s PNC branch. He specializes in businesses who earn less than a million annually.

And he can relate to those businesses.

“I got to learn what it’s like when your last name is on the outside of the building,” Blakley said. “And how much harder you have to work than everybody else just to be even. Having watched that small business turn into something bigger was inspiring.”

It might be a marathon, it might be a concert or it might even be election day. One zWORKS founder wants to make sure events like these are as safe as possible.

Whether it’s as dramatic as a shooting or hurricane, or as simple as a power outage or verbal altercation, President and Founder of Venue Intelligence, Jim Martin, wants people to feel safe, and know the answer to “what to do if…”

Emergency planning is a top-of-mind issue for event managers and venue owners worldwide, and increasingly, that awareness isn’t limited to just the paid professionals.

An HR position turned into a startup company for one Indianapolis entrepreneur.

Dawn Lively worked at DeveloperTown as the Director of Culture and Talent. So many companies she worked with while at DeveloperTown – a software solution company in Indy – continued asking her for HR help that she decided to make a full-time business out of it.